Are we a rabbit nation?

That was 16 months ago. Before the July elections the Higher Election Board made a statement and "disclosed" that there was a mistake in the number of people eligible to vote in the elections and though some 2.5 million new voters were added, the actual number of Turks eligible to cast a vote was a down 42,799,303, some 1.5 million less than the previously disclosed figure.

Sixteen months have passed since then. How many people can be added to the Turkish population and thus the number of Turks eligible to cast a vote in elections? 100,000? 300,000? No... According to the Higher Election Board, over the past 16 months some miraculous development has taken place and the Turkish population all of a sudden has had an inclusion as big as the population of Libya, Paraguay or Jordan, or as big as the population of Denmark, Slovakia or Finland...Yes, according to the electoral board, the number of Turks on electoral lists has increased over the past 16 months by more than six million and has exceeded 49 million. Someone must be joking!

It has been an urban legend so far that could not be verified, but after every election we keep on hearing claims of election fraud and duplicate voting organized by some local branches of the ruling parties. The March local polls apparently will have implications beyond installing new mayors and local assemblies. As the then ruling Motherland Party suffered a humiliating defeat in the 1989 local polls though it was the first party in the 1987 parliamentary elections, early public opinion polls, that cannot be considered reliable as we have a long period between now and the polling day, indicate a sharp decline in the public support for the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP. We are not of course accusing, yet, the AKP of engaging in election fraud, but what has been happening is rather odd, is it not?

Most likely the government and the ruling AKP, will be angered about why we are making an issue of the increase in the number of Turks eligible to vote. But, is it not awkward to have such a high increase in the electoral number within 16 months? When we went to the polls in 2007, we were told that as all citizens were given a citizenship number and all population records were computerized, it was normal to have a correction in the electoral lists because duplicates were erased. Now, what has happened is that we have such a big jump in the number of people on the electoral lists? Are we a rabbit nation multiplying with a such high rate?

Episode II
I wrote yesterday about a thief hammering down the backdoor of the flat of our ground floor neighbor. It was a real shock to witness how reckless thieves have become and how daring and clamorous methods were applying to break in to houses. I must confess, I am not at all a good watchman... Panicked and terrified from what we lived Tuesday night, I spent Wednesday night occasionally looking down from the windows to see whether there was something strange happening. We, however, woke Thursday morning to a surprise. This time thieves had entered through the back balcony of the first floor flat of our neighbors, who live in Australia for most of the year and stay in Ankara only during summer months, on the first floor. After climbing on the balcony, the thieves have apparently used a device to get rid of the iron fence placed on the balcony door to provide additional security, smashed the wood door and entered the house, and while all that happened we did not hear any noise... Police said it could be that the thieves were aware that there was no one in the house and entered the house in the afternoon hours when we were away as well. The thieves must have spent several hours in the house because everything was everywhere and the flat was very much like a war field... According to municipal laws, covering balconies is not allowed. Now, we have decided to break the rules and cover all the balconies in our building, placing lamps sensitive to action in the backyard, subscribe to a security company and install alarm systems in our flats. Let us see what is waiting for us in episode three!